Dungeons of Dredmor

I was certain I’d never have any time for roguelites. To clear up confusion about this most ambiguous of genres, by this I mean games that have permanent or mostly permanent death states, where losing means starting again from the beginning, with finite resources, and not necessarily any end goal. In fact, if you’d asked me a few years back, I’d have said this was the antithesis of why I play games.

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

We had no idea what a roguelike resurgence there was going to be back when brutal yet light-hearted dungeon-running RPG Dredmor was released in 2011. Sure, a few were doing the rounds, but they were rare enough that this tongue-in-cheek take on perma-death adventuring seemed ever so special. It still is, even if what it’s doing seems rather more commonplace today. It’s got wit and strangeness as well as a mean streak a mile wide. … [visit site to read more]

We’re seven years old! (Actually, we were seven years old last month, but we’ve never been much for punctuality.) And so by way of celebration we’ve curated the latest weekly Humble Bundle, and that means we’ve chosen some of our most beloved indie games from the past seven years for the Pay What You Want sale. An esoteric bunch, but so very beautiful, all. If only there were room for all the delights of those many wonderful years. As ever, some of the money goes to charity, too: we chose EFF and Medecins Sans Frontieres. Find out more, below, or simply click over the the bundle itself.

Clockwork Empires is a citybuilding/Lovecraftian survival sim from Gaslamp Games, they of the splendid Dungeons of Dredmor, in which you manage and protect Imperial colonists attempting to build a life on a new frontier. A new frontier which just so happens to contain Other Creatures. While it might be a dramatic departure from the successful roguelike that went before it, it does retain the horror-comedy tone. It arrives on Steam Early Access tomorrow, but I’ve been playing it for the last few days.> … [visit site to read more]

Imagine if so much of the bullshit Peter Molyneux has talked over the years was actually in a game. A simulation game where each tiny human lived their own lives, had their own thoughts and feelings and memories, and behaved accordingly. It’s a claim we’ve heard so often that it’s hard not to dismiss it out of hand. So much so that when Dungeons Of Dredmor developers Gaslamp Games were claiming it, I demanded they stop and prove it to me… They did. Clockwork Empires, a colonial village building sim (of sorts) pulls you in with the cult monster worship, but you stay for the extraordinary AI.>

While the main Humble Bundle is diverting itself from gaming with a really quite splendid collection of audiobooks, it seems to have snuck out one of the best collections of games so far in its Weekly Bundle. Rather than showcasing games from one studio, this week it’s a collection of Roguelikes. (Everyone who wants to have a fight about the terminology, please do so here.) That’s Paranautical Activity, Dungeons Of Dredmor Complete, Hack Slash Loot, The Binding Of Isaac + DLC, Teleglitch Die More Edition, and Sword Of The Stars: The Pit Gold. Cor.

If you place some kind of weird one-trailer-per-day restriction on yourself and are currently fretting about finding Mr or Ms Right: The Extremely Brief Videogame Preview, then look no further. Clockwork Empires, the latest ball of bits and bytes from Dungeons of Dredmor developer Gaslamp Games, just got its first trailer, and it’s sending RPS’ hyper-sensitive Delight-O-Meter into a tizzy. The game is a 19th century steampunk colony builder, but the trailer reveals that it’s so very much more than the staid stew of trite aesthetic cliches that description seems to imply. Somehow, it manages to prompt tearfloods of both uproarious laughter and bitter sadness within the span of, like, a minute. Also, there are giant squid monsters. Enough of my blathering. Watch.

CORE: • FIXED: various issues with saving and loading games, including but not limited to your inventory disappearing, your save games breaking, and you losing levels when entering or leaving the pocket dimension.• FIXED: The Traditional Achievement Fixing Ritual has been performed. (Please join in at home by chanting to the Pterodactyl Wizards until you feel the icy grasp of their claws upon your shoulderblades.)• FIXED: primary stats not being buffed by skills• FIXED: game now runs correctly on machines with international localizations.• FIXED: aggressively regenerate levels when a level has been deleted from a save game.• FIXED: instructions now included on Magic Box pop-up.• FIXED: sight radius could not be decreased• FIXED: flickering up/down buttons in the skills tree• FIXED: phantom slots on skills grid• FIXED: crash clicking "next" on tutorial button• FIXED: at low resolutions, wizard key falls offscreen at 2x mode• FIXED: magic box could be exploited to steal from shops• FIXED: Steam overlay not working in -opengl mode• FIXED: missing expansion2 caused problems with expansion3• FIXED: spell points could result in negative mana• FIXED: dagger and polearm bonuses now only apply when wielding a dagger or a polearm• FIXED: Confiscate Evidence allowed theft• FIXED: rutabagas would dash repeatedly at you, either killing you instantly or locking the game• FIXED: named monsters no longer spawn in Mysterious Portals in enormous piles• FIXED: clicking the Digest button in the pocket dimension no longer freezes the game• FIXED: item stacking problems• FIXED: buff stacking problems• FIXED: skill level is now actively checked when encrusting a weapon• FIXED: when we add a steam achievement, we also add the local achievement• FIXED: some local achievements• FIXED: transmuting monsters could repeatedly set off traps• FIXED: various other polymorphing monster crashes• FIXED: Insufficient terrifying and foreboding graffiti on the walls. Added terrifying and foreboding graffiti to the walls in preparation for the Ominous Countdown.• FIXED: Brittle stacks do not refresh after changing levels.• FIXED: "Platinum Ring" removed from Lucky Find spawnlist because it doesn't exist.• Increased all monster perception values.• Slightly nerfed first level polearm skill.• Fixed polearm stance effects that weren't firing.• Made high level polearms harder to craft.• Lucky pick automatically opens locked doors without requiring a lockpick, and no longer requires Lockpick Spamming.• Radiant Aura, Magic Steel buff stacksize capped at 1.• tweaked Healing Rain effect.• tweaked This Root Shall Suffer to cause more suffering.• Fixed some random spelling and grammar stuff.• UI: darkened Krong popup dialog background to make icons easier to read• UI: darkened resistance & damage extension widgets to make icons easier to read• Master of Arms description updated to reflect chance of triggering "Suit Up"• removed unnecessary skill category tags• Tentacular Infestation bolt no longer infests you with tentacles when it hits other people• Very Sharp Wall of Blades Stance now hits enemies with small amount of piercing/slashing when player is attacked ROTDG• Fixed Helm of Threepwood artifact quality• enhanced the Broadside skill• added a new sound for Broadside YHTNTXP• FIXED: Ravens now make proper sounds. Quothing is involved.• FIXED: Mage's Mana Maille buff stacksize capped at 1• FIXED: All eruptors spawn fewer traps. It was getting ridiculous.• FIXED: Clockwork Knight: teleport animations removed from movement-based spells• FIXED: Puissant Veil now hits enemies with magic damage when player is attacked• FIXED: Multiple, multiple issues with the Arcane Capacitor. Who thought it was a good idea to have a spell with 200 lines of scripts for it anyway?COTW• FIXED: decreased monster charge attack damage (see: Deadly Rutabagas of Death)• FIXED: Insurance Fraud issues when used on a corpse.• FIXED: Encrustings would fire 100% of the time.• Communist healing skill may now fire commie debuffs• Hammer and Sickle can be found in the dungeon• Hammer is now craftable• Sandstorm nerfed (Sandstorm damages reduced, mana cost increased, additional player debuff added)• Asp Empowerment buff changed to fire less commonly• Damage scaling added to "Alien Weapon" skill• added special craftable Communist Armour & Helm • Bailout should now remove fiscal responsibility• Pyramid Scheme can now trigger correctly• Reform and Opening now actually pays out• gave minor passive bonuses to Tourist & Paranormal Investigator• added missing item definitions for Helm of Ultimate Knowledge and Shrat's Helm• added four new high-level daggers• Added some more Wizardlands so we don't keep running into that room with the Evil Clones all the time. (Wizardland Geometry may slightly change as a result.)

Deep within the pocket dimensions of the Wizardlands, the mighty Wizardkings plunge their hands greedily into their stashes of magical wizarding booze, desperately searching for more mana. Their time has passed, and they have faded into the drunken myths of obscurity. Some of them can still be seen on street corners, but most people just give them five zorkmids and walk away.

While the Wizardkings have faded into the hangover-fuelled mists of time, their artifacts of power corrupt the world. Powerful wizarding keys, strewn about the Dungeons of Dredmor during a grand night out, threaten the very reality of existence. Mystical wizarding graffiti, spray-painted on the walls during a particularily good party, holds the secrets of other worlds.